Signature gathering

ABSTRACT

Books (magazines) are compiled from signatures demographically in that persons in the same mailing zone may receive books with signatures of different content. The books are trimmed while superimposed one on another, but nonetheless proper mailing sequence (zone separation) is maintained by shifting a trailing book forward to lie atop the next leading book just before trimming, and then the shifted book is returned to its former position before being mailed thereby to preserve the mailing zone sequence.

United States Patent 3,203,326 8/1965 Obenshain 270/60 X 3,207,0179/1965 McCain 83/27 3,490,761 1/1970 Bell r 270/58 3,519,264 7/1970Beacham et a1.. 270/58 3,525,516 9/1970 Bushnell et a1. 270/58 PrimaryExaminer-Robert W. Michell Assistant Examiner-L. R. OremlandAtt0rney-Kinzer, Dorn and Zickert ABSTRACT: Books (magazines) arecompiled from signa tures demographically in that persons in the samemailing zone may receive books with signatures of different content Thebooks are trimmed while superimposed one on another but nonethelessproper mailing sequence (zone separation) is maintained by shifting atrailing book forward to lie atop the next leading book just beforetrimming, and then the shifted book is returned to its former positionbefore being mailed thereby to preserve the mailing zone sequence.

COUNTER STACKER ZONE STACKER STACKER DRIVE CONTROLLER UNSTACKER LA BE LREADER BOOK REJECT con-m'oLLaR 800K COLLECTOR 3 AND TRIM ME RPROGRAMMER, MEMORY SYSTE M AND REFERENCE ANALOG I: 9 jjjj:

SENSING o DISCHARGE CONV. [a

4 @IQ @1 9 2 5. 52 81 7 I51 flos'rirch 37 CONTROL- FROM CAMPER l7 15 n44 45 3 I I l 14- IPOCKET FEED CONTROL (MEMORY SYSTEM) SADDLE FEEDER (4T0 \00 POCKETS) QEFE ENCE CALIPIPs (3 T016)! a f, 7

SIGNATURE GATHERING This invention relates to the production of books(e.g. stitch-bound magazines) compiled from signatures, and inparticular to a method for so handling the books during the trimmingoperation as not to disturb the predetermined mailing zone sequence inwhich the books are produced.

The distribution of magazine-type books may involve compilation ofdemographic character in that subscribers within a given location, evena single city, will not necessarily receive copies which are identical.For example, an edition of a magazine may be compiled differently amongprofessional groups, scholastic groups, social strata, etc., which is tosay that the weekly edition of the magazine may contain signaturesoriented for doctors or lawyers quite different from signaturesspecifically intended for the reading by college students or housewives.

At the same time the production of the weekly edition of a magazineentails, for best efficiency, an assembly line which terminates with allthe magazines of a particular mailing zone (and only those) being packedinto appropriate mailing bags. From this it will be realized that themagazines must be produced in accurate sequence which takes into accountmailing zone separation.

The foregoing considerations, principally in terms of demographiccompilation of the books together with maintenance of mailing zoneseparation, dictates that the weekly production must be accuratelyprogrammed if for no other reason that the plain fact that John Smith,M.D.; Mary Brown, R.N.; Dick Doe, Attorney; and Harry Jones, living inadjacent apartment units, may be mailed an edition of a magazine withsomewhat different contents purposely selected as of special interest todoctors, nurses, lawyers, and the man-in-the-street.

Coincidental with all other aspects of magazine compilation, productionand mailing is the trimming operation by which the front, the head andthe foot of the magazine are trimmed. High-rate. production demands atthe very least that two books he superimposed one on the other so thatthe two will be trimmed simultaneously in a single stroke of the knife,so to speak. Such a trimming operation performed on two books in itselfis a common occurrence in the trade, but the manner of superimposing thebooks is such that as customarily practiced it would disrupt the mailingsequence described above, and the primary object of the presentinvention is to enable juxtaposed books to be trimmed without disturbinga predetermined mailing sequence.

Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent fromthe following description and claims and are illustrated in theaccompanying drawing which, by way of illus tration, shows a preferredembodiment of the present invention and the principles thereof and whatis now considered to be a mode for applying these principles. Otherembodiments of the invention embodying the same or equivalent principlesmay be used and changes may be made as desired by those skilled in theart without departing from the present invention.

In the drawing:

P16. 1 is a schematic and diagrammatic view illustrating one practice ofthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view at one of the hoppers; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view through the saddle conveyor.

For purposes of disclosure it is assumed that magazines produced inaccordance with the present invention are to be bound by thesaddle-stitching method, but book binding may be otherwise. In anyevent, signatures S, FlG. 1, from which the magazines or books arecomposed, are presented in individual stacks or piles 10, and theindividual piles are associated with corresponding hoppers or pockets 11of which there may be as many as 100 or as few as four. The arrangementis such that the folded signatures in the pile, P16. 2, are withdrawntherefrom, opened or spread and then dropped onto a so-called saddle 12,FIG. 3.

ln P16. 2 the signatures S1 are identical, being viewed as those of thefirst pile for the first pocket. The total number of signatures tocompose a book, say S1, S2 and S3, FIG. 3, are dropped in propersequence onto a conveyor or so-called gathering chain (not shown) whichtraverses the saddle 12. This collecting or gathering operation is wellknown in the art. Thus, the hoppers or feeders 11 may be of theconstruction described in application Ser. No. 815,299, filed Apr. 11,1969 and may be controlled as disclosed in application Ser. No. 841,493,filed July 14, 1969. The saddle-type conveyor and stitcher is disclosed,for example, in Me Cain US. Pat. No. 3,087,721 and in application Ser.No. 748,380, filed July 29, 1968.

The collected signatures, FIG. 3, compose a book, and in order to assurethat the book is complete, it is customary to perform a caliperingoperation by which the thickness of the book is measure. Caliperingoperations in specific terms are disclosed in McCain US. Pat. No.3,191,925, and in application Ser. No. 748,380, filed July 29, 1968. Inaccordance with such customary practice a caliper station 15 ispresented including a master caliper 16 associated with a plurality ofreference calipers 17 which may be three to 10 or more in number. Themanner in which the master and reference calipers cooperate will beexplained below.

After being calipered each book is then carried by the conveyor orgathering chain along the saddle 12 to a stitching station 20 wherestaples (preferably) are applied to the back of each book thereby tocomplete the book. The stitched or stapled books are then advanced insequence to a conveyor 25 incidental to additional operations includingthe application of a mailing label 26 to each magazine. Each mailinglabel 26 is cut or otherwise removed from an endless tape 27 whichfeatures prominently in the present invention as will now be described.

It was mentioned above that the present invention assumes demographicproduction of books and magazines as well as their delivery in terms ofmailing zones. To enable such sequential production to be realizedcertain operations described above and to be referred to hereinafter arecontrolled by data on a tape, and in accordance with the presentinvention the tape may be the same tape 27 which presents the mailinglabels 26. The control data may be in the form of punched holes,magnetic spots or the like, and such data are inclusive of instructionsto be delivered to memory units and control systems 30 which monitor thesignature feed means.

Thus, the magazine which Dr. John Smith receives will be represented byan appropriately addressed mailing label 26 on the tape 27, andassociated with this same mailing label will be control data specifying,for example, that Dr. Smith (and all other doctors in the same mailingzone) is to receive a magazine inclusive of all signatures, say with theexception of signatures S11 and S99. The next subscriber may be nurseMary Brown, who, like all other nurses in her mailing zone, is toreceive a magazine containing all signatures, say, with the exception ofS98; and so it goes with the formation of the control tape 27 so far asconcerns demographic sequences.

As for zone-sequencing, the tape need only be punched or bear othercontrol indicium specifying the end or beginning of a particular mailingzone. Thus, to continue with the example, it may be that Brown, Doe,Jones and Smith (alphabetical order) represent all the persons inmailing zone 60602, namely, four in number. This zone need berepresented on the tape only in connection with the mailing label forSmith since it is assumed that he is the last (alphabetical) subscriberin that zone. On the other hand, the mailing label following Smith (thelast one in zone 60602) could be punched or otherwise marked to signifythat a different mailing zone now starts, if desired.

The data on the mailing tape 27 are sensed at a sensing station 35. Thesensed information, for each book, is transmitted to a programmer andstorage unit 36 where the information is separated and stored until itis to be used. Thus signals from the program unit 36 are selectivelychannelled to caliper controls 37 of which there are as many in numberas there are demographic divisions or separations. For each calipercontrol 37 there is a reference caliper 17 as will] be explained in moredetail below.

Also, signals from the program unit 36 are channelled selectively to thesignature feed control units 30 so that for each book the correctsignatures are delivered from the pockets or hoppers 11 in accordancewith the information fed to the pocket feed control units 30.

The number of reference calipers 17 and control units 37 will dependupon the demographic units. In the example given involving Smith, Brown,Doe and Jones there are four demographic units, namely, doctors, nurses,lawyers and the manin-the-street; hence four reference calipers l7 andthe control units 37 therefor will be active. The programmer 36 willdirect which caliper control 37 is to govern the appropriate caliper 17when the corresponding book arrives at the master caliper 16. At thistime, the master caliper will compare the actual book at the caliperingstation to the reference analog, or to an actual book, known to be good,in the active reference caliper 17 to determine if the actual bookthickness as measured or calipered indeed complies with the referenceanalog in the reference caliper. Timing will be under control of thecontrol unit 37.

If the book is of correct thickness, no signal is generated, but if thebook is of incorrect thickness (too many or too few signatures) then ano stitch" signal is generated and delivered for storage and ultimateaction to the stitcher control unit 38 signifying that the book is notto be stitched when it arrives at the stitching station. Concurrently, asignal is generated for delivery and ultimate action to a book rejectcontroller 39, further signifying that the unstitched book is to berejected when it is delivered to conveyor 25. Further details of themaster caliper and the reference (comparator calipers are described inaforesaid copending application Ser. No. 748,380, filed July 29, 1968,together with the stitch, nostitch and book reject functions.

The conveyor 25 may be termed a delivery conveyor in that it deliversthe stitched or bound books to a trimmer station 40 and from thence to adischarge conveyor 50 where the books are stacked in zone separationsfor mailing. In connection with trimming, it will be noted that thebooks moving from the stitcher station to the conveyor are in tandemsequence, one behind the other (B1, B2, B3) in singular order, and in anorder corresponding to the order of the mailing labels 26 on the tape27. in fact, a labelling unit 41 is located upstream of the trimmerstation 40, and as each book passes therebeneath a label is appliedthereto even though the book may not have been stitched as one which isto be rejected. If the book was not stitched (book B3) then a trap door42 located in the upper path of the conveyor 25 is depressed at theproper time to reject the unstitched book from the conveyor 25.

When a book as B1 (and the next trailing book B2) is stitched on theother hand, then the trap door 42 (or an equivalent finger or panel 42A)is elevated, and this is timed to be substantially concurrent with anaccelerator or kicker finger 44 arriving at the trailing edge of book B2accelerating book B2 up the panel 42A and on to the next leading book ormagazine which is book B1. The accelerator 44 may be nothing more than afinger on an endless belt 45.

Thus two books are superimposed for trimming, but in an unusual way, andin fact in a way which assures that the mailing sequence will bemaintained as will be seen from the following.

The books may be trimmed by any appropriate, known means but aftertrimming, the uppermost (elevated) book B2 of the trimmed pair is to beshifted rearward to occupy its previous in-line position on the conveyor25, immediately behind book B1. This may be accomplished in differentways, but as shown in FIG. 1, it may be done by retarding finger 47 on abelt 48 so timed and positioned as to engage the forward edge of thetopmost book of-the trimmed pair, shifting this book rearward to theopen space on the conveyor 25 which is formerly occupied prior to beingelevated for trimming.

The unstacked books B1 and B2 emerging from the unstacker in propermailing sequence are dropped one atop another onto the stacker 50 whichmay be represented by an endless belt 51, although it may be of anyappropriate form.

Quite naturally the stack may become excessively high or heavy, and inorder to avoid excesses of this kind a sensing or counting element 52 orother measuring unit is used to detect a limit on weight, count orheight, or any combination, whereupon an appropriate signal isoriginated. The signal may be transmitted to controller 53 which wouldthen be effective to cause the conveyor belt 51 to be stepped forwardone step (a little more than one stack width). The stack on the conveyor51 is independently monitored for distinct zone separations by thecontroller 53 in that the controller 53 will receive a signal signifyinga change in mailing zone or region, which signal originates from and isdelivered by the memory unit 36. When an end-of-zone signal is receivedby the controller 53 it is effective to advance the drive for thecollector or discharge conveyor belt 51 forward at least two steps (twobook widths) thereby to clearly indicate for the supervisor that adifferent mailing zone has been reached.

It will be seen from the foregoing that under the present invention itis possible to both collect signatures demographically for books and totrim the books in superimposed relation without disturbing anypredetermined mailing order; and it will be clear that any rejected bookbears a mailing label so that there can be no oversight as to thesubscriber. Thus, the rejected books will receive special handling.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of compiling books to be mailed to persons in the same andin different mailing zones, said books being composed of signaturesselected demographically in that books for trimming operation.

persons may have signatures of different content even though the personsare in the same mailing zone and comprising: affording supply sources ofsignatures for all the books, feeding control data including thedemographic data and the mailing zone data for each book to a sensingstation where the data for each book are sensed in sequence, collectingsignatures to compose each book in accordance with the demographic andmailing zone sequence, binding the collected signatures into books andmoving the books onto a conveyor means, advancing a trailing bookforward from the position occupied by it on the conveyor means to lieatop the next leading book on the conveyor means, trimming thesuperimposed books simultaneously and then shifting the top one of thetrimmed books rearward to its previous position on the conveyor meansthereby to preserve the mailing zone sequence as the books are deliveredto a collecting station by the conveyor.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the data are carried on a tapewhich is itself a mailing tape bearing printed label addresses for thepersons to receive the books and wherein the individual mailing labelsare applied to the books prior to superimposing the books for trimming.

3. A method according to claim 2 in which the control tape bears ananalog reference of the correct thickness for each book, wherein thereference analog is transmitted to a caliper station where thesignatures of a collected book are compared to the correspondingreference analog, wherein the books are bound by stitching and wherein abook of incorrect thickness is not stitched and is rejected from theconveyor prior to being superimposed for trimming.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein the mailing zone dataidentifies the mailing zone separations calling for a correspondingsignal to be generated when a zone separation is detected.

5. A method according to claim 4 wherein the delivered books areseparated by mailing zones in accordance with said signal.

6. A method of compiling books from signatures and trimming the bookscomprising: compiling individual books from a predetermined number ofsignatures and moving the books one behind another in line on a conveyortoward a trimming station, elevating a trailing book and superimposingthe same on the leading book immediately in advance thereof on theconveyor, trimming the two books simultaneously, and then shifting thetopmost one of the two books rearward to its previous position in lineon the conveyor following the

1. A method of compiling books to be mailed to persons in the same and in different mailing zones, said books being composed of signatures selected demographically in that books for persons may have signatures of different content even though the persons are in the same mailing zone and comprising: affording supply sources of signatures for all the books, feeding control data including the demographic data and the mailing zone data for each booK to a sensing station where the data for each book are sensed in sequence, collecting signatures to compose each book in accordance with the demographic and mailing zone sequence, binding the collected signatures into books and moving the books onto a conveyor means, advancing a trailing book forward from the position occupied by it on the conveyor means to lie atop the next leading book on the conveyor means, trimming the superimposed books simultaneously and then shifting the top one of the trimmed books rearward to its previous position on the conveyor means thereby to preserve the mailing zone sequence as the books are delivered to a collecting station by the conveyor.
 2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the data are carried on a tape which is itself a mailing tape bearing printed label addresses for the persons to receive the books, and wherein the individual mailing labels are applied to the books prior to superimposing the books for trimming.
 3. A method according to claim 2 in which the control tape bears an analog reference of the correct thickness for each book, wherein the reference analog is transmitted to a caliper station where the signatures of a collected book are compared to the corresponding reference analog, wherein the books are bound by stitching, and wherein a book of incorrect thickness is not stitched and is rejected from the conveyor prior to being superimposed for trimming.
 4. A method according to claim 1 wherein the mailing zone data identifies the mailing zone separations calling for a corresponding signal to be generated when a zone separation is detected.
 5. A method according to claim 4 wherein the delivered books are separated by mailing zones in accordance with said signal.
 6. A method of compiling books from signatures and trimming the books comprising: compiling individual books from a predetermined number of signatures and moving the books one behind another in line on a conveyor toward a trimming station, elevating a trailing book and superimposing the same on the leading book immediately in advance thereof on the conveyor, trimming the two books simultaneously, and then shifting the topmost one of the two books rearward to its previous position in line on the conveyor following the trimming operation. 